Older story but it checks out.
After the West Virginia governor approved a bill that would allow citizens to drink unpasteurised milk, several legislators toasted the new law with a glass and promptly fell ill.
“I’m not feeling that great,” said Pat McGeehan, who said he was handed a glass of milk in a corridor of the capitol building in Charleston, shortly after the bill was signed into law.
In a remarkable display of open government, Mr McGeehan allowed a crew from WSAZ, a local television station, to interview him as he lay prone upon a sofa in his office, eyes closed, a patina of sweat upon his pale face.
“I think it’s probably just some sort of bad stomach virus,” he said. “There is definitely some other colleagues that have similar symptoms.”
Mr McGeehan has named Scott Cadle, a Republican, as the man who supplied him with the milk, an act which may technically have been in breach of the law.
Mr Cadle, who also fell ill, had sponsored the bill, approved last week by the governor, which allows for “herd sharing” agreements. It would allow West Virginians to buy a share in a cow, goat or other “milk producing animal” and receive its milk raw.
First they must sign a statement acknowledging the “dangers of consuming raw milk that may contain bacteria, such as brucella,campylobacter,listeria,salmonella and E. coli”.
An investigation into the causes of the stomach upset is now under way.
Allison Adler, a spokeswoman for the department of public health, said that “the distribution of raw milk was in violation of the law and that it may have caused an outbreak of disease”.
